Chapter 1

 

"Excuse me Stephen; I must speak to you for a few minutes." Trajen O'Rorke stepped into Stephen Saunders office early one morning. She placed two cups of coffee onto his oak desk and then sat on one of the four red leather chairs in the plush office. She placed a folder onto a nearby table. "Did you have a good weekend?"

"We spent the weekend on the sail boat." Stephen finished signing the documents covering his desk. "The weather was beautiful. What did you do?"

"I spent the weekend on the beach working on my tan." The attractive young woman brushed back her long black hair and smiled at him.

"I can see that." He admired her long and deeply tanned legs. They appeared to be a stark contrast to the short white skirt she wore. "I'm going to have a problem with some of my junior executives when they see you today."

"Why is that?" She smiled.

"They're going to want me to give you up as my executive assistant. They're going to want you working for them."

"I think they want me to do more than just work for them." She laughed before sipping the coffee.

"Well, you're working for me, and if anyone begins to annoy you, you tell me. We have five hundred people in this building, two thousand across the country, and ten thousand people working for us world wide. Let me know if any of them starts to hit on you."

"You've built a fabulous consumer products manufacturing company in just seven years. I'm proud to be working for you, and proud that I could help you build this empire."

"I didn't do it alone Trajen. You've been by my side for the past six years, and I appreciate everything you've done for this company."

"You may not say that after you hear what I have to tell you this morning."

"You're not leaving for another job, are you? I'll match, or double whatever they're offering you for pay and benefits."

"I'm not leaving." She smiled, before she sipped her coffee. "I thirty five years old and I plan to be working for you for another thirty years or so."

"I'm very glad to hear that." He stepped around the desk and sat beside her. "What have you got for me this morning?"

"Our internal auditors sent me a memo stating they found a serious discrepancy in our budget figures for last month."

"They did? I want you to get them in here so they can explain it to me in detail. I don't need any surprises when the outside auditors get here at year end."

"Well, that's why I'm here, instead of the bean counters." Trajen hesitated, and then suddenly appeared to be extremely nervous as she sat forward and upright.

"I don't understand." He frowned.

"The discrepancy the auditors found concerns your wife's personal expense account."

"I'll cover her overage myself. That's not a problem. I thought this is something serious."

"She's over budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars Stephen."

"How can that be? Maybe someone stole her credit cards and she doesn't know it yet. Let me call her and ask her. We'll get this cleared up now."

"I don't think that's the case. I have all of the associated records to backup her purchases, and I've found a definite pattern."

"A pattern? Maybe Paige is buying a lot of items for our new house."

"That's not it Stephen." She frowned and looked at the floor as if searching for the correct words.

"What's going on Trajen? What is so bad that you can't talk to me?"

"She's been buying a lot of jewelry."

"That sounds like my wife. I'll cover her expenses with my personal funds and tell her to watch her spending through the end of the year."

"Your wife has been buying a lot of expensive men's jewelry from exclusive stores in Beverly Hills."

"I see." Stephen frowned at his assistant. "There must be more to this explanation, if you're in here to present the details yourself. You're very good at your job, so tell me everything you know."

"I'm sorry I have to be the one to tell you this Stephen. I also found receipts from a hotel further up the coast."

"Receipts for what?"

"Hotel rooms."

"What is she doing in a hotel?"

"Your wife gets a room every Wednesday afternoon in the same hotel. Actually, she gets the same room with an ocean view."

"This can't be right Trajen." Stephen suddenly appeared to be relieved. He looked at the picture of his wife on his desk, and smiled. "Wednesday is the day my wife does her volunteer work at the hospital. She's been doing that for more than a year. She says she gets a great deal of satisfaction out of that type of work."

"Maybe you should ask your wife about the rest of these details yourself." Trajen suddenly stood and lifted the folder. "I shouldn't be doing this. This isn't my job."

"Sit down, please." He patted his hand on the arm of the chair. "Tell me what's on your mind, and what's going on."

Trajen sat down and composed herself after taking a deep breath. "It appears from all of the outward appearances that your wife is having an affair with another man."

"You're reading too much into this. My wife and I are happily married."

"That doesn't appear to be the case, but I may be mistaken, and I hope to God I am."

"Why would she use her credit cards to buy jewelry, and book hotel rooms, and think that I wouldn't find out about those purchases?"

"We've never audited Paige's accounts before now, because she is your wife. If she had not spent such a large amount of money during the past few months, we would never have become suspicious."

Stephen stood and stared out the window of the towering office building. He silently studied the city skyline while he became angry. "This is what I get for marrying a woman twenty years younger than me."

"That's ridiculous. You've been married four years and I've never seen you look at another woman."

"You know that I'm an ex-Army Green Beret, and I expect the best from everyone under me. Maybe I expected everyone within my organization to work with me the way you do, including my wife."

"May I make a suggestion? You can tell me to shut up if you don't like it."

"I'll fire you if you don't say something. Tell me what to do."

"I think we should hire an outside detective agency."

"To do what?"

"To follow your wife and monitor her activities before you confront her with this information. Maybe you're right and this is nothing more than a case of stolen credit cards."

"All right Trajen. Hire a reputable detective agency to follow her. Let's see what she's really doing."

That evening Stephen drove onto his estate and parked in front of the large mansion in Beverly Hills. The house was concealed by trees and shrubbery, and was set far back from the road, at the end of a long driveway blocked by black steel gates. He listened to the birds singing in the trees in the simmering late day July heat as he walked to the large swimming pool and spacious patio behind the house. There he saw his wife Paige lying on a lounge chair.

"Hi sweetie, how are you?" She lowered her magazine and stood to kiss him.

"I'm good." He looked at his wife's red shorts, and low cut white blouse, which exposed her large breasts. Her beauty seemed to intrigue him, and as he kissed her cheek, he noticed the scent of her perfume on her hair. "How was your day?"

"It was absolutely wonderful. I worked out for hours in our basement gym before I swam three miles in the pool. I missed you today, and I asked the kitchen staff to prepare your favorite dinner tonight."

"Trajen can't be right about Paige have an affair with another man," thought Stephen while he changed in their upstairs bedroom. "She must be wrong. She has to be wrong. I want to ask Paige if she is having an affair, to get this out into the open now, but I can't do that yet. If Trajen is right, then I've given Paige everything she asked for, and she's still betrayed me! Why would she do that?" He attempted to relax by enjoying a glass of Scotch before he enjoyed dinner with his wife.

During the next two weeks, the idea that Paige was now a cheating wife became his obsession. He constantly thought about it, and his anger became almost uncontrollable several times. He broke a vase in his house one night and told Paige he accidentally dropped it while admiring the details. At other times, after discussing how Paige planned to redecorate the interior of the house, or after enjoying dinner together in an exclusive restaurant, Stephen convinced himself that his wife could not be unfaithful to him.

Trajen knocked on his office door several weeks later. "Good morning. I'd like to speak to you."

"I'm reading the first draft of the annual report. I think our shareholders will be pleased with our sales and profit results for this year, and our forecast for next year."

"That's nice." She sat down after placing several large folders onto his desk. "I told your secretary to hold your calls all morning."

"Why? Don't tell me we have a production problem in our South America plant again?"

"I told the Engineering Department to deal with that problem. You don't have to worry about it."

"What's going on?"

"I have to speak to you this morning, and it has nothing to do with the company."

"You look terrible. Do you have a personal problem? Can I help you? Do you need more vacation time for something?"

Trajen raised her hands. "Stop Stephen! You're making this more difficult for me."

"I'm sorry. I'll stop talking."

"I have some more information about your wife."

"You do?" He took a deep breath. "Well, judging by the expression on your face it's not good, is it?"

"No, it's not good at all."

"Is she having an affair?"

"Yes she is." She paused, while staring into his eyes. "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this."

"Damn her!" He angrily stood and began pacing. The unexpected movement startled her, and she shuddered. "Tell me what you know. I want to hear everything you know about my wife."

"The detectives I hired to follow Paige took these pictures of her, and this man." She pulled several large black and white photographs from an envelope. She held one up. "His name is Carlos something."

"Carlos Montogoya? The guy who comes to my house to help her in the gym? Her personal trainer?"

"Yes sir. That's the man." She carefully placed the picture on his desk.

"Where are they going for their meetings?"

"They meet at the Seaside Hotel up the coast. Her expense account records show that they've been meeting there every Wednesday afternoon for some time."

"My wife is fucking her personal trainer?"

"It appears that way Stephen. I'm sorry."

"This can't be possible."

"Your wife always gets the same hotel room. It's a room with a view of the ocean." She pulled several photographs from another envelope and placed them face down on his desk. "The detectives placed several cameras in the hotel room, and they got these still pictures for you."

He turned a photograph over and stared at it silently for several moments. "My wife is wearing black stockings and a garter belt? I don't think I've ever seen her dressed this way."

"That is quite provocative." Trajen bit her pencil between her teeth.

"And, she's kneeling on top of this guy, giving him a blowjob. That's nice."

"Please calm down Stephen." Her hands trembled.

"What's this picture going to show us?" He turned over another. "She's sitting on his lap while his cock is in her pussy. This is a nice one of Paige kneeling on the floor while her stud fucks her pussy from behind. The rest of these pictures show her fucking this guy all over the room, and even on the desk. Now that's using her imagination in ways I never knew she could."